


Of Snowflakes in a Fiery Grip

by OfUpsideDownHerons



Category: Dead Rising
Genre: Ableism, Animal Abuse, Animal Death, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Cruelty, Death, Disability, Friendship, Gen, Misunderstanding, Non-Graphic Violence, Parent Death, Violence, ableist slurs, animals eating humans, human death, r-word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfUpsideDownHerons/pseuds/OfUpsideDownHerons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short pieces of plausible back story and other things for Theodore 'Ted' Smith. Not necessarily chronological.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Won’t Find Me Here

Ted’s mom had wanted a daughter.  
Ted’s dad had wanted a son.

Ted’s dad had got what he wanted.  
So when Ted’s dad left them, Ted didn’t understand.  
And Ted’s mom, she always cried, and wouldn’t tell him why.

And when he asked, she would not look at him.


	2. Names

Ted-  
or was he Theodore…?  
No.

Always Ted. Ted, never Theodore.  
Everyone called him Ted.

Just Ted.

Maybe Theodore was too much for him to be.


	3. Words

Words  
Sometimes  
They were…

At a beach, sometimes Ted liked to hold sand, and watch it slip between his fingers.

Words were sometimes like that; little ones more like clumps of dirt that still came apart and slipped through at times, and bigger ones like grains.

And his mind was like his fingers.


	4. Zombies

Sometimes, Ted wondered if he should have felt some kind of kinship with zombies.

With the kinds of things he heard said about them…  
[“Zombies are stupid and slow!”]  
[“For all the brains those zombies like to eat, they sure have none!”]  
[“Ridiculous, idiotic, _things_.”]  
[“I almost feel bad for ‘em, they obviously don’t know what they’re doing. But they’re so damn disgusting.”]

There must be something about them, that he and them shared.

But at least he wasn’t trying to eat people.


	5. Safety

They had told him not to do things like this.

That it wasn’t safe.

A man should not rest between the arms of a tiger.  
A man’s head should not be so close to sharp claws, sharp teeth, strong paws.

But Ted trusted Snowflake, much more than he trusted any of them.  
She was his friend.

Ted felt safe.


	6. Animals

They said Ted wasn’t good for much.  
Ted wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

But they said he was good with animals.  
Ted thought that was wrong.

Ted wasn’t good with animals; animals were good with Ted.


	7. Ironic

Sometimes Ted’s mind went blank.  
And sometimes when Ted’s mind went blank, he stopped moving.  
That also happened, at times, when he was thinking a lot or about not much but rather hard.

Unfortunately, it also happened in public.

[“Hey, move it, asshole!”]  
[“I said, ‘move it!’”]  
[“Are you deaf, or just stupid?”]

[“Leave him alone! He’s just… slow.”  
“Oh? You mean he’s a _retard_.”]

Ted had only been thinking about how he wish people wouldn’t talk about him.


	8. Meat

Sometimes, bad things happened.  
[“Occupational hazard.”]

A wrong move, or a wrong tone, or the wrong intent might set it off.

Or, well, things that other people _said_ were bad; but sometimes Ted was not so sure.  


* * *

Neptune was a rather big tiger. This scared some people, Ted guessed, though he wasn’t sure _why_.  
Neptune wasn’t harmless, but he wasn’t so bad.  
As long as you treated him right.

But people often liked to be bigger and badder than those things which scared them.  
That seemed to be the only reason, that Ted could think of, for what had happened.

Sticks, stones, sharp words:  
[“And _why_ would they hire someone like _that_ to be a trainer in the first place?”]  
whatever it was, that was the final straw in a series of things that should not have happened.  


* * *

Neptune was a big tiger, big paws, big roar; one of nature’s predators all right, and a fragile human body no match for that power.  
Deadly.

And maybe Neptune was hungry, because he didn’t stop at killing. He ate, slowly, as if savoring it.  


* * *

They said it was bad, but Ted was still not sure.  
He had seen. They had not.

And yet still:  
[“Monstrous beast!”]  
big tigers might not be a match for a group of angry humans, or their guns.

It seemed so pointless, the killing of Neptune.  
They said it was bad, but Ted thought this was worst.

Neptune had his reasons, but what good was this?

Ted thought people were the monsters.


	9. Slow

Running.  
Ted needed what they took from him, it was important.  
But…

[“Can’t catch us! Too slow!”]

Frustration.  


* * *

Running.  
Ted needed to get there, to get there before they-  
Ripped butterfly wings, tumbling to the ground.

[“Didja think you could save it? Thought ya could stop us in time? Too slow.”]

Sorrow.  


* * *

Running.  
Ted needed to get away, the rocks hurt, the words hurt.  
They-

[“Do you really think you can get away from us, you dimwit? You’re too sloooooow!”]

Pain.  
 _Hatred_.


	10. A Funeral

There were so few people here, but yet still too many.

They with loud words, talking,  
saying things…

[“…so mentally insufficient, that he can’t even cry, poor boy-“]

Ted… was not crying, it hurt too much to cry.  
He could not-  
He was pretty much turned off.  
No doing.  
No crying.  
Just being, and pain.  
And hate, and love.

These people would not shut up-

[“…even think he realizes she’s gone? He’s…”]

So loud, and fuzzy and yet fading in and out. Bad static.

And he could not cry, though he wished he could, he loved her so.

[“Come on son, time to go home.”]

And hands, arms, leading him away, away from her forever.  
And he did not want to leave, he did not and-

Why were these people here? They did not know her, not at all.  
She was not their mom. She was not their _anything_.


	11. Like, But Unlike

If there was ever a time Ted felt at peace, it was the time he spent with Snowflake.  
He liked to talk to her.

He told her about butterflies, and beaches.  
About smooth rocks, and other treasures.

He told her about people.  
How they were.  
What they did.

Sometimes he would wonder if she understood that he, too, was a person.  
Like them.  
But not _like_ them.

Would she turn on him, like them, for being like them?

But she never did.


	12. Snowflake Hungry (So Panic)

There was no food.  
Ted could not find food.

He was hungry, but he thought he could hold on. A bit longer.

But Snowflake…  
He knew Snowflake was hungry.  
And he couldn’t let Snowflake stay hungry.  
What kind of friend [friend. and Snowflake was his only friend, wasn’t she?] would he be if he…

There was no food and he could not think.  
All the food was bad, rotten, no good; so there was no food.  
And the zombies were everywhere.  
And he could not think.

And the image of Neptune eating that other trainer-  
repeating  
over  
and  
over…

Ted could not think and Snowflake was hungry and-  
Ted sat down and cried.


	13. Enter Chuck Greene (Rotten Meat)

Once upon a time a hungry tiger ate a horrible person.  
Now upon a time there was a different hungry tiger, and a hungry man.  


* * *

And then _he_ came.  
And Ted… was it really so wrong? It didn’t seem wrong when Neptune ate.  
It really didn’t.  
And almost all the people, so many people were bad.  
So bad.

This was another bad person, and Snowflake, the only real friend he’s ever had, was so very hungry.

So Ted did the only thing that seemed right, knocked out the bad person.  
Before he could hurt him.  
Food for Snowflake.  


* * *

But then the man awoke and he was talking.  
And he seemed okay. Maybe. For once.  
He wanted to help?  
Ted would like help, yes, maybe this-

But, no, no! They were all bad, all bad but…  


* * *

And he was asking his name-

And… maybe… maybe they weren’t all bad….  


* * *

“We just need to slow down and talk this over, right?”

Wait.  
No.  
 **No.**

“Nice and slow, Ted.”

Slow.  
 _Slow._  
 **Slow.**

**NO.**

Never, ever, ever.  
No more.  
Not again.

“NO!!! Ted not slow! They all said that!”  
Every last one. Never, ever, ever trust another human.

Never Theodore, always Ted.  
Never Ted, always ‘slow’, always ‘dumbass’, always ‘retard’.

“Ted not slow! Stop saying that!!”

_They_ would never shut up. He always heard _them_. They were so loud right now.  
Louder than Ted, and Ted was screaming.  


* * *

“See, people not nice!”

Words said often to his dearest, his only friend.  
She listened.  
She was there.  
No, this was not wrong. Humans were wrong, all rotten inside, rotten meat.  
But on the outside-

“Snowflake… go and eat your fresh meat… nice and slow…”


	14. Death (The End)

Oh.  
Pain.  
Worst than rocks.

And Snowflake, did she get to eat?  
Ted… did not think so.

“Are you still hungry, girl?”

There was a… big word… responsibility…  
A better word, friendship…

Or maybe a feeling, love.

“Take me, Snowflake!”  
“Ted feed you! Ted take care of you…”

Just like she always did for him.

Ted hoped she would be okay.  
Ted hoped…


End file.
